October 7, 1993
Dear Everyone:
We had a fire drill at work yesterday (in addition to the Townhall
Meeting, the Owner-Initiated Destruction Procedures Meeting and the
United Way Meeting). This is
something that Company Real Estate Management Company (CREMCO) does at
least once a year in each building that it owns.
It's one of those Safety Things.
Of course, CREMCO can't do it alone, so they have "volunteers" called
Floor Wardens. Sometimes, when a
building is too large, like Building 3 in “Pleasant Hill”, which is over
200 yards long, they break a floor into "zones" and then they called the
"volunteers" Zone Wardens. I
should know; I've been both a Floor Warden And a Zone Warden in San
Francisco, “Pleasant Hill”, “Pleasanton” and, again, in San Francisco.
Who says lightning never strikes
twice in the same place?
I've been certified for CPR more times than I want to count.
Been to Red Cross First Aid
Classes and Earthquake Preparedness Sessions.
I know what to do in the event of
a heart attack, hurricane, quake, flood or fire.
I even know what they'll do with
the dead bodies until help arrives. And
in 20 years, I've never needed any of it once.
When we moved to the 30th Floor, I figured it was my chance
to get out of being an FW. After
all, I served my time. Let
someone else have the opportunity to get up close and personal with "CPR
Annie". So I notified CREMCO that
I had moved and was no longer the Floor Warden for the 13th
Floor. That didn't bother them.
They just assumed that I'd become
the FW for the 30th Floor, even though my manager hadn't
"volunteered" me.
(Technically, our manager hadn't volunteered any of us.
When we were on the 13th
Floor, it was up to “Alma”, as our supervisor, to make the nominations.
Since she could never make up her
mind, “Melanie” decided, on the grounds that she’d rather serve then
fry, to volunteer herself, and “Rowena” and me in the process.
That way, at least
some of us would make it out
safely.)
CREMCO keeps sending me information for Floor Wardens; and I keep
sending it back, telling them that I'm
not an FW.
Nevertheless, I know all the
things a Floor Warden has to do in the event of a Fire Drill.
First:
Find "volunteers" to help with the evacuation.
A Floor Warden needs:
2
Assistant Floor Wardens (to assist)
2
Stairway Monitors (to stand at the entrance to the stairwell and prevent
people from using the stairs until they're certain that the stairwell is
clear, one for each Stairwell)
2
Stairway Runners (to run down four flights and check that the stairwell
is clear, then run back up for flights to report that the stairwell is
clear, one for each Stairwell)
2 Rest
Room Monitors (one male, one female, to check for people in the rest
rooms)
1
Elevator Monitor (to tell people to use the stairs instead of the
elevators)
1 (or
more) Handicap Monitor(s) to assist person (s) with mobility problems
plus
miscellaneous monitors to run up and down the hallway, chasing people
out of their offices and shutting the doors.
On our floor, we have RACS, of which there are seven people, none of
whom can be guaranteed to be in the office at any given time, and a
small covey of executive types who moved in at the other end of the
floor a few weeks ago. You can
see the problem: By the time you
finish assigning monitors, you've run out of "volunteers" and there's no
one left to evacuate. In fact,
when the Drill actually transpired, two of RACS and all of the
executives were out to lunch, a condition that can be, but is not
necessarily, permanent.
The rest of us took up our respective positions, until “Melanie”, the
official FW, had closed all the doors (must've taken her a full 90
seconds), then sauntered down four flights and waited for the all clear.
You only go down four flights in
a high rise office building because, according to the theory, they can
contain a fire within two floors. So,
when there's a fire, you only evacuate the "fire floor", the one below
it and the two above it. After
that, you have the evacuees re-enter the building two floors below the
fire. This way, they aren't
blocking the stairways and getting in the way of the firefighters,
something they forgot to mention at the
World
Trade Center.
Of course, in the event of a real
fire, it's every man for himself. After
all, I saw
Towering
Inferno at least three times.
Love, as always,
Pete
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